In the same moment that Jadis had sat back in her chairs and made her clear demand to Kestil, the doors to the solar burst open. In the blink of an eye three armed knights had surrounded Jadis from three sides, their longswords drawn and pointing at the Nephilim. A fourth knight, who Jadis immediately recognized as Lady Severina, practically materialized next to the prince. She had moved so fast it had been difficult for Jadis to track her movement as anything other than a blur.
“Your highness, I—”
“Stop, stop,” Kestil cut the Seraphim off before she could continue with whatever she was about to say. “It’s quite alright. No harm done beyond a little blood.”
Kestil gingerly wiped at his nose with a white handkerchief, pulling it away to reveal a decently large blot of red. His nose looked… slightly flatter than it had a moment ago and while Severina maintained her professional mask, Jadis could see the way her eyes widened at the sight.
“Alright, maybe more than just some blood,” Kestil poked at his obviously broken nose. “Fetch me a healer, would you, Severina? They can come attend me after our little meeting here is completed.”
Jadis raised an eyebrow on each of her faces at the prince’s statement. She had half-expected him to try and toss her out on her ear. She had acted… rashly. Not that she could find it in herself to regret her decision. Maybe she’d feel differently once the weight of what she had done settled in, but she honestly felt like she had done the right thing. Kestil seemed like the type who forgot that his little plans and machinations had real consequences for real people, not just abstract concepts like military units, mercenary companies, citizens, nations, and the like. He had needed the knock to the face as a reminder that casually interfering in someone else’s life could have a direct negative impact on him. Though, Jadis did have to admit that maybe she wasn’t in the best position to give the elf the reminder.
…She might have to leave that part out of her recap when she told her companions about the visit. Jadis was fairly certain that Eir would faint.
“I believe the meeting is over now,” Severina stated coldly as the feathers on her white wings bristled slightly. “Clearly this… Nephilim is not capable of maintaining a civilized conversation. She has assaulted your royal highness and she should be thrown in the dungeon.”
The paladin’s barely restrained words and glowering demeanor were imposing, but the impact of her presence was greatly diminished for Jadis by the fact that the furniture she and Kestil were sitting at was Nephilim-sized. Standing next to the table, with her head and shoulders barely rising above the wooden surface, made the Seraphim look more like a petulant child than a vengeful angel.
“It’s fine,” Kestil insisted as he straightened his nose with a wince. “I think our dear Jadis here was due that little outburst for all the trouble she’s been put through as of late. I’m certain she will restrain herself going forward.”
“So long as you don’t do anything to deserve a punch to the schnoz a second time, sure.”
Both Kestil and the angry paladin stared at Jay as she looked back at them with a mild expression. Letting out her impulse to punch the annoying royal had cooled a lot of her temper and she was honestly feeling much better than she had in a while. She didn’t think she’d need to punch the man again. But if he pulled more shit in the future, well, she wasn’t going to make any promises she couldn’t keep.
“Schnoz?” Kestil asked, his voice tinged with confusion.
“You dare admit that you plan to assault the Second Prince again right in front of me?” Severina demanded as she took a dangerous step towards Jadis.
Before she could move closer, the gold-skinned elf’s hand took hold of the Seraphim’s elbow and stopped her from going further.
“As I said, Severina. We are fine here. I am in no danger and Lady Jadis has made her position abundantly clear. Take your leave. I have private matters to discuss with my guest.”
At her liege’s words Severina shut off her flaring anger and reverted to a formal salute. Without a further word she motioned for her knights, the three of whom had been standing around Jadis the whole time, to exit the room. As she left, she tossed Jadis one final glare of warning, which Jadis acknowledged with her own firm, unyielding gaze. In moments the doors to the solar were closed and she and Prince Kestil were alone once more.
“I do believe you were owed that outburst,” Kestil started with a decidedly less friendly smile on his face. “But do not make the mistake of thinking me tolerant of continued disrespect. That was your one jab at me. Understood?”
“I understand you,” Jay said without breaking eye contact or backing down. “Just so long as you understand that I do not accept being used. If you want my help with something, fucking ask.”
Kestil regarded Jadis, his expression unmoving. His silver eyes burrowed into her in a way that made her feel like she was being weighed on a scale like some object of value, but his face was guarded enough that she had no inkling into what his judgement was. Whatever his thoughts, after a few seconds his expression reverted to that same easy smile that he had carried when she’d first met him, though it was marred slightly by his broken nose.
“Then may I presume you would heed my requests, should I make any?”
“If they are within reason,” Jay said cautiously. “And I’m not going to agree to anything you ask without consulting my friends.”
“Let’s be frank,” Syd said from Jay’s side. “I’m at a total disadvantage when it comes to politics. There weren’t any emperors or princes where I grew up, I don’t know anything about the current events or the history of your empire, and I’m about as devious as a log.”
“I don’t want to step into any mud dealing with you or your asshole brother,” Dys continued from Jay’s other side. “I’m not interested in getting involved in any wars of succession and honestly, I don’t know if I really like you. If you’re the kind of person who can fuck up another person’s life that you don’t even know just for some minor advantage in an argument between you and your sibling, I’m not sure you’re the kind of ruler I would want to support.”
“But I’m willing to hear you out,” Jay said with shake of her head. “I don’t hate you. I’m not sure I trust you, but I don’t hate you. At least someone else I respect has positive things to say about you, so I’m holding out hope you aren’t as big a douche as your brother has shown himself to be.”
Jadis hadn’t originally planned on being quite so open with Kestil but considering how the man seemed to thrive on subterfuge and innuendo, she wanted to be as forthright and honest with the elf as possible. She knew she wasn’t going to win playing his game, so why even try to? Better to force the guy to deal with her in the open as best as she could and remove as much of his avenues for being sneaky as possible.
“My, my,” Kestil said as he leaned back in his chair. Breaking from his adherence to polite etiquette, he leaned his chin onto the palm of his hand while his elbow rested on his armrest. “You and my brother are far, far too much alike. I’m afraid you would absolutely hate each other.”
“What? Why?” Jay asked, somewhat surprised by the comment.
“He’s always the type to cut straight to the heart of the matter as well,” Kestil said, his amused smile looking far more genuine than it had a moment before. “Vraekae and Noll were quite right. You are cut from the same cloth. Direct and to the point. I can hardly believe you are some kind of chosen demi-hero of the God of Secrets and Lies. You don’t seem like the right type for such a devious god.
“Then again, considering what you just did, you seem exactly the right type to sow chaos wherever you go. I suppose that’s the thing about Destarious. He and his followers never come at you in the way you’d expect.”
Jadis wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about the prince’s assessment of her, but she kept silent as he continued to speak.
“My dear brother prefers to attack things straight on, just as you do,” Kestil grinned. “Why take the time to undo a knot by hand when a blade will make quick work of the problem? And that spark of violence is certainly present in you both. Yes, you two are very much alike. The reason why I say you two would hate each other is that you would never bow to him, just as he would never bow to you.”
“I don’t want him to bow to me,” Jay said, but Kestil cut her off as he forged ahead with his explanation.
“Yes, but he would want you to bow to him. He wants everyone to bow to him. Hraustrekr is convinced that his way is the only way and he will suffer no one to choose their own path.”
“What do you mean, exactly?” Jay asked, her brow furrowed in a mix of confusion and concern.
“What are you saying? He’s a control freak or something?” Syd asked.
The elf nodded to Syd, his smile widening.
“Control freak. Yes! That is quite a good description. Yes, he does seek control. Not just of the empire. But of all of Oros. My brother seeks to rule the entirety of the world.”
Jadis blinked at the bold statement. It was so absurd, so ridiculous, that she almost laughed. But there was something about the look in Kestil’s eyes that prevented her from taking the assertion that Hraustrekr was seeking world domination as a joke.
“Okay, fine, your brother wants to rule the world,” Dys said with a frown and a shake of her head. “So what? Don’t most kings and emperors want to rule the world? Don’t you want to do the same, if you become the emperor instead of him?”
Kestil nodded his head as though he had been expecting her accusation.
“While I can’t deny that there are some hostile territories that I would seek to conquer, I agree with my brother on those points, it is his treatment of allies that I disagree with him on. I wish for the empire’s strength to grow, but not at the cost of our allies. As I said, he is trying to expand his dominion to the entire world. That includes nations that have heretofore peacefully coexisted with us.”
“He’s planning on attacking allied nations? Now? During the demonic invasion?”
“No, no,” the prince clarified as he waved one hand dismissively. “That would be an unnecessarily expensive endeavor. No, what my brother is doing is using the demonic invasion to his advantage. You see, Hraustrekr, as blunt as he is, is not without subtlety, particularly when it comes to warfare.”
As he spoke, Prince Kestil got to his feet and walked down the short set of stairs that had been set up so that he could sit at the same height as Jadis’ selves. He strode over towards the large window that had a beautiful view of the Brandrvald river as it winded its way westward. His hands brushed the flowers growing along the sill with a delicate touch.
“Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend?’ It’s a particularly apt expression to explain what my brother is doing.”
“…He’s using the demonic invasion to weaken other nations, isn’t he?” Jadis asked in all three of her voices.
“Precisely,” Kestil grinned at her over his shoulder. “The Rubaline Dominion fell not only because of the unexpected nature of the demonic assault, but because my brother purposefully withheld troop reinforcements that could have turned the tide of the initial attack. He has done the same in regards to Volto, as well as many of our other neighbors.
“All with plausible cause, of course,” the elf said as he turned to face Jadis. “This demonic invasion is one of the worst noted in many cycles. It’s important that the empire look to guard its own borders and the citizens within before aiding other nations. However, such considerations are ultimately a smokescreen for his true intentions. He continues to delay and allow the casualties to rise among our allies so that when he does finally act and the invasion is repelled, he will be able to send his own troops into neighboring lands unopposed. It will be a simple matter of cleaning up the mess.”
The implications of what Kestil was saying were… horrifying. If his words were true, it meant that thousands, no, tens of thousands of people had died since the start of the demonic invasion all because of one power hungry prince’s desire to rule. Jadis couldn’t even fully grasp the amount of suffering that was likely going on in the rest of the world even as she sat with Kestil drinking tea, if her little slice of experience in Weigrun was anything to go by. What Hraustrekr was doing was evil, through and through.
That was, if what Kestil was saying was true.
Jadis didn’t trust that everything coming out of the second prince’s mouth was the whole story. There was no way for her to know how much of what he said was the truth and how much was a lie intended to provoke a response out of her. For all she knew, all of it was just a story that Kestil had made up on the spot. Of course, the fact that Hraustrekr came across as a total prick due to his behavior with her lent credence to Kestil’s tale. But that could all be a part of the prince’s lie, a deliberately created misunderstanding to guide her towards distrusting the first prince when otherwise she would have no reason to believe anything that Kestil was saying.
On the other hand, Kestil was telling her a lot of information that he had to know that she would be talking to her companions about. In fact, considering she was currently quartered in Lyssandria’s temple, she could verify most of what he was saying with the high priests. Heck, she even had a direct line to a god via an oracle girlfriend. She could perform a ritual and check out his story directly with Destarious if she wanted.
Kestil had to know all of that. And yet, here he was, telling her everything with the confidence of someone who was simply telling her the time of day.
Her doubt must have shown on her faces as the prince looked down with a small huff of laughter before walking back to the table to have a seat again.
“No surprise that you don’t believe me. I’m not my brother. I rarely speak in direct words and you are right not to trust me. I certainly wouldn’t. But please, take my words into consideration. Speak with whoever you have to and when you’ve had time to think things over, come back to me. I could use your help.”
“I’ll think about it,” Jay finally said after a pregnant pause. “But I won’t make any commitment to you right now. Or your brother.”
“That’s fair,” Kestil said with another one of his strange smiles. “More tea?”
As Kestil picked up the teapot and started to pour another round, Syd leaned her head to the side and voiced a thought that Jadis had had while listening to the elf’s words.
“It wasn’t your father who sent Severina to get me out of that holding cell at the docks, was it?”
Kestil’s smile widened to a grin.
“No, no it wasn’t.”
“Are you going to get into any kind of trouble for that?”
“Perhaps,” Kestil shrugged. “However, what’s a little trouble but another spice of life?”
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